Ian-S

It's a different world from when we'd be hanging out the side of an open slam - door train carriage half a mile out from the station as the train hurtled along.
Fun times, and I didn't die. You couldn't stand too close to the platform edge then, or the doors would hit you, now there's no doors every one stands too close to get on first. Make a change in the name of safety and you just create another issue as people stop thinking for themselves. It's 'elf and safety gone mad now, I tells ya.

Are you sure it wasn't just a bored chav walking around with what he found in his kitchen?

because regardless of how immersive it is, a ride that basically goes around on a flat track at a relatively slow speed, isn't what I look for when going to a theme park necessarily, I call it wasted (money) potential, I care about the ride itself being fun and thrilling, and then it would be nice to have themeing, but that's second priority.
 
 
It's not about getting creds, it's about what I enjoy. sorry I'm not like everyone else who can't get enough of a magical dark ride experience; I do enjoy them too usually... but I just can't stop thinking about the value for money in terms of thrills/enjoyment (for me) in comparison to a coaster, and that just ruins it for me, hence why unless it's like the mummy or contains thrilling elements then I'd probably find it boring. it's pointless me saying sorry, as I'm the one being spited by thorpe as they've chosen to build something that doesn't seem like it's going to appeal to me.

11-5 would be better as by closing at 4 they're missing out on the after school visits.
Sometimes I wonder if the people running the parks actually realise the demographics of their visitors.

This should be the theme for any new attraction, something for all the family...
 

Considering the ridiculous queues for some of their small flats, they could install a bouncy castle and it will probably be popular.
I've low expectations so can only be impressed!

That's why it would suit chessington perfectly. It would be surrounded by so many other rides which are all about to kill themselves at any moment

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see how anyone can seriously think Samurai is returning to Chessington? It just seems like people are putting 2 and 2 together and getting 5.
If Samurai returns to Chessington, I'll eat my hat.

The smiler incident was absolutely devastating and of course I feel so much sympathy for those involved. If it hadn't been such a life changing event then it wouldn't have had as much effect on the parks as it has done.It's ovbiously upsetting that this event has had such an impact on the theme park community as a whole, as it's likely to drop attendance dramatically all over the UK. However, at the same time I can only feel that this event is beneficial for merlin as a company to learn from this traumatic experience. Not only do merlin now know how to handle a situation like this if it were ever to arise again, however the drop in gate figures across the board may make merlin realise that they need to improve the way they operate their parks if they want to retain their customers.
Of course I and I'm sure everyone would have rather the incident never happened however now that it has happened I feel like Merlin can learn from it to improve as a company(whether they actually will is an entirely different matter altogether).

I really find that programme on during the day on BBC3/4 terrible. It's called "...programmes start at 7.00pm". It's just boring. Anyone else agree?

Sometimes, it depends, it's usually the fifth or sixth run that I start to get dizzy/breathless, but then I'm sure 20 years of smoking didn't helped me. I used to hold my breath at the top of drops but don't bother now.
G-forces are bad for the body whichever way you look at it, I always find I get a headache if it sit on the right side of the Swarm but don't if I sit on the left, a friend (he's a doctor) says the centrifugal force is higher on the right side because the right turns are tighter than if you were on the left, and to drink water before going to the park, g induced headaches are the bodies way of telling you it's dehydrated.
Dunno if that would apply to breathlessness though, maybe that's just a women thing, my wife comes off the rides panting like a horse too

Sometimes, it depends, it's usually the fifth or sixth run that I start to get dizzy/breathless, but then I'm sure 20 years of smoking didn't helped me. I used to hold my breath at the top of drops but don't bother now.
G-forces are bad for the body whichever way you look at it, I always find I get a headache if it sit on the right side of the Swarm but don't if I sit on the left, a friend (he's a doctor) says the centrifugal force is higher on the right side because the right turns are tighter than if you were on the left, and to drink water before going to the park, g induced headaches are the bodies way of telling you it's dehydrated.
Dunno if that would apply to breathlessness though, maybe that's just a women thing, my wife comes off the rides panting like a horse too

Sometimes, it depends, it's usually the fifth or sixth run that I start to get dizzy/breathless, but then I'm sure 20 years of smoking didn't helped me. I used to hold my breath at the top of drops but don't bother now.
G-forces are bad for the body whichever way you look at it, I always find I get a headache if it sit on the right side of the Swarm but don't if I sit on the left, a friend (he's a doctor) says the centrifugal force is higher on the right side because the right turns are tighter than if you were on the left, and to drink water before going to the park, g induced headaches are the bodies way of telling you it's dehydrated.
Dunno if that would apply to breathlessness though, maybe that's just a women thing, my wife comes off the rides panting like a horse too

Probably adds a bit of spark to it...

Opening a food place after lunch... Well done on that logic. I understand that people are not exactly near that area but still. Surely they should have a restaurant open for lunch.

It's unfortunate he's dead, but I'll quite happily call him an idiot. A selfish one too. 
 
He's put himself in lethal danger, on top of that he's endangered those on the ride, those that had to rescue him from the location, he's probably left deep scars on those who saw it happen first hand and those who had to come to his aide and physically pick up the pieces from the public, the staff and the emergency services, and no doubt he has devastated his own family too. And then there's the following over zealous things that have to be put in place because of people like him in general.
 
I don't get why there should be this fake respect for someone simply because they are dead. If I'd seen him doing what he was doing I'd have called him a lot worse than an idiot, the inevitable outcome of his stupidity doesn't change that.

But they look lovely...
 

You can be extremely clever academic wise but lack common sense... Schools don't seem to teach life skills enough!

So say you're an operator on.. well we're say Colossus but what whatever and you see torrential rain outside and you decide, well we're keep it open because even though standing in the rain and travelling through the rain at speed on basically an open top car are completely different things, you're a stubborn operator and it looks nice on a queue time website to have everything running.
 
And then your ride breaks down. And it can't be resolved. And because you've taken a decision to keep it open in spite of seeing the rainy conditions, you've essentially sent 28 people out into the rain, stranded on the lift hill where it takes 40 minutes to an hour to be evacuated. There's no cover up there so it's just the train and the elements. So because of you, not only have you got 28 people soaked to the bone, you need to get all the managers over, the guest service team to distribute free tickets (maybe even annual passes), warm blankets, hot coffee and potentially hold the ride up further once the rain goes causing even more annoyance because you thought the running of a ride was more important then guest comfort. 
 
Lets face it, our parks are good at running their rides in the rain anyway so most of it is a moot point, but on rides like Storm Surge (which it turns out wasn't guest comfort anyway, just my suggestion) that lift hill is long and sitting on a boat that's filling more and more with rain water can't be much fun.

Well there's an obvious upcharge attraction opportunity. Instead of flogging pots of nectar to feed the birds, charge a few quid for a go of an air rifle and take out a few monster rats. Fun for all the family!

They know already and they know how to prevent it. If they didn't the other rides closed 'as a precaution' would still be closed.

I don't think merlin like to admit to any problems aha 

If you saw Valhalla with the lights on you would understand why they keep it so dark.It is a great ride but they spent the money on huge effects rather than the basics of a dark ride, resulting in unreliable effects (I doubt even the biggest parks would be able to keep all the effects running all the time tbh) and most of the theming being missed due to having to keep it so dark to prevent spoiling the illusion.
I highly doubt that Thorpe will bring in a ride with so many expensive effects (both to buy and to run), and hopefully they'll choose a more reliable ride system too!

When I rode the Smiler in May 2014 one of the projections in the queue line wasn't working which ruined the entire room tbh. On Monday when I visited Thorpe, Saw's strobe light on the inside drop wasn't working, none of Swarm's effects worked except for the fire (which went off every 10 minutes or so) and there was no mist on Inferno! 
 
Which is why if the reviews for WC16 are good, I'll quickly visit just the once before the entire ride is a giant blue screen with an error message on!

Other non Merlin-owned parks I've visited in both the Autumn and Spring/Summer have all (or almost all) of their attractions open throughout the day. I know I can't speak for every park ever, but Merlin and other companies are particularly bad with reliability when compared to others.
 
And if I went to a good park, for instance Phantasialand, I wouldn't be as disappointed if a major attraction was shut because the entire park experience is, for me, a lot more enjoyable and well kept.
 
I know not all parks can have perfect reliability but if the money is there, I don't see why they can't be equal with other parks that set a high standard. That goes for cleanliness and upkeep as well.